


Going in Blind

by allmylovesatonce



Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-26
Updated: 2016-10-26
Packaged: 2018-08-27 03:00:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,807
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8384674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allmylovesatonce/pseuds/allmylovesatonce
Summary: Jake and Amy are set up on blind dates, not knowing it's with each other. 
Set during season 2 some time after Boyle-Linetti Wedding.





	

The night shift was coming in as the day shift was packing up to leave. Charles stopped by Jake’s desk on his way out. “So Jake, what are you up to tonight? Rosa and I were talking about going to Shaw’s. Gina and Terry might come. I don’t think Amy will be. She bolted out of work pretty quickly. But what do you say?”

Jake blinked a couple times, absorbing all of the information given to him. “Sounds like fun,” Jake started. Charles looked excited. “But I actually have other plans tonight, so I can’t,” he finished, clearly killing Charles’s enthusiasm.

“How do you have other plans? What do you have a date?” Charles asked. He quickly gasped, glanced over at Amy’s desk and glanced back at Jake. “Oh my God, are you and Amy _finally_ going out?” He asked excitedly.

Jake shook his head quickly. “No,” He adamantly denied. “Though I am going on a date.”

Rosa walked up as he was speaking. “A date, huh? Cool. You haven’t been on a date since Sophia brutally dumped you,” she reminded him. Jake feigned looking pained.

“This is not cool, Rosa!” Charles exclaimed. “The only person you should be going on a date with is Amy.”

Rosa looked back and forth between Charles and Jake. “Is it Amy? She really ran from here tonight.”

Jake sighed. “It’s not with Amy. My friend Drew from high school said his wife’s friend would be quote ‘perfect for me’ or something. So I’m going to this party they’re having tonight. Supposedly she’ll be there. I don’t even know her name.”

“Wait!” Gina interrupted, “You still talk to Drew Ugly from high school?”

“It’s Drew Uggersley and you _know_ he didn’t like it when you called him that,” Jake responded.

“Whatever. I can’t believe you still talk to that loser,” Gina replied.

Jake shook his head at her. “He’s not a loser, he’s a nice guy.”

“Well _I_ can’t believe you have other friends,” Charles added. “ _Or_ that you’re going on a date with some lame-o who isn’t Amy!”

Jake sighed as Gina turned to Charles. “Oh my God are you still going on about that?”

Rosa interrupted. “So is that what you’re wearing? To meet the woman who is perfect for you or something?”

“He’s not wearing that to meet the woman who is perfect for him,” Charles responded.

“He’s right, I’m not,” Jake added.  
“Exactly. Because he’s already met the woman who’s perfect for him because it’s Amy Santiago,” Charles insisted.

Jake groaned. “Wow. Well you guys go have fun drinking. _I’m_ going to go home and drink myself, just to blot this little conversation from my memory. Okay? Great. Bye,” Jake concluded, grabbing his bag and heading to the elevators.

He wasn’t really getting his hopes up about this party. Drew and he might have been close in school, but they’d changed a lot since then. There’s no way Drew and his wife would magically know the woman who he should marry. Jake told himself that he was just going to go and have a good time, be nice to this random woman, and catch up with his old friend. Anything more than that was a perk.

He didn’t really expect to hit it off with anyone when he couldn’t take his mind of someone else. Charles may have been super annoying about his relationship (or lack of relationship) with Amy, but he at least knew who it was Jake wanted. His feelings for Amy had never really disappeared. Even when he dated Sophia, they were really only below the surface, pushed down on purpose to make room for feelings for someone else. But even then, they’d spring back up at the worst times. Like when he was on a double date with Amy and her boyfriend and the boyfriend claimed Amy liked Jake back. He couldn’t stop his feelings for Amy from creeping back to the surface.

He’d batted them back down of course because he was with Sophia. He had to prove to her (and probably himself) that he wasn’t just dating her to get Amy out of his head. But of course, once he was finally finished feeling raw from his untimely breakup, who was the first person to pop into his mind? Amy. Because somehow in Jake’s life, it always came back to Amy.

So no, he didn’t have high hopes that he’d be meeting the woman of his dreams. He’d already met her and she was uninterested. That was as far as he knew. He’d been single for a while. She’d been single for even longer. If something was going to happen between them, it probably would have already.

**

Jake showed up at Drew’s house fashionably late. He was never one to show up early and for a party it was lame to show up on time. Drew answered the door and dragged him across the threshold, happy to see him.

“Hey, man! I’m happy you came!” Drew cheered.  Jake smiled and agreed. He looked around the house to see tons of people there. He seemed to be the only one from high school. That pretty much guaranteed that Drew and his wife would be the only people Jake knew in case the date went south. “So I have no idea where the girls ran off to. So I’ll go find them and you just make yourself at home. The bar is out back on the deck. I’m gonna go find Kelly. I’ll find you in a second.”

Jake nodded and finger gunned his friend and headed off toward the bar. He was already in desperate need of a beer. He pulled one out, opened it, and took a long drink from it as he surveyed the backyard. He nearly choked on his beer when he noticed who was sitting in one of the patio chairs not twenty feet from him.

“Amy?” Jake asked incredulously, moving closer to her.

Her head whipped around and she looked equally shocked to see him. “Jake?” She stood up and they met in the middle. “What are you doing here?” she asked.

“Me? What are _you_ doing here?” Jake replied. “This is my old friend Drew’s party. Do you know Drew?”

“Drew? No,” Amy answered. “Well, I guess kind of. I know his wife, Kelly. She invited me here.”

Jake stared at Amy, still confused to see her. Her expression mirrored his. “Weird…” Jake said very slowly. Before he could say more, Kelly walked over to them.

“Oh this is great! You’ve already found each other!” She exclaimed.

They both whipped their heads to her. “What?” They asked in unison.

She wagged her finger between the two of them as if to clarify. “The blind date Drew and I set up. You guys met each other before we could introduce you.”

Amy and Jake looked at each other and then back at Kelly. “Wait,” Amy started. “You were setting me up with Jake?”

Jake spoke at the same time she did. “So you and Drew set me up with _Amy_?”

Kelly looked between them, clearly confused. “Do you two already know each other? Is it because you’re both cops?”

“Uhh, kind of. We’ve been partners for the last six years,” Amy explained.

A look of shock crossed Kelly’s face. “What? No way!”

“Way,” they answered together.

“Huh,” she replied, standing there dumbfounded. Jake and Amy looked back at each other, sharing a look of hesitation. “Well, I guess this way there’s no need for awkward introductions,” Kelly finally concluded. She started walking away from them. “I’ve got to go find Drew. He’s going to think this is hilarious.”

They both stood there watching her leave. Slowly Jake turned to Amy. “So…beer?”

“Yes!” Amy exclaimed. They shared a laugh as they walked over to the bar to grab her a beer. They settled into a couple of chairs and started drinking together.

“So how do you know Drew?” Amy asked after a few minutes of silence.

Jake rolled his head over to look at Amy. “I went to high school with him. Well sort of all through school with him. Fun fact: he asked Gina to prom and she cried.” Amy almost spit out her beer as she laughed. Jake watched her laugh and felt that feeling again. The one that had plagued him before he ever confessed his feelings to her. The one that left him feeling hopeless when she stayed with Teddy. The one he had to fight off when he was with Sophia. The one that, now, left him feeling confused. He tried to shake it off. “So how do you know Kelly?”

She looked back at Jake with a bashful expression. “You’re gonna make fun of me.”

“What?” Jake asked. “Me?” he asked sarcastically. She glared at him. “Come on, just tell me.”

“I met Kelly in book club,” Amy explained, reluctantly.

Jake chuckled. “Please, of all the nerdy things I know about you, that doesn’t even top the list. But I didn’t know you’re in a book club.”

“I’m not anymore. Work got too crazy so I left a long time ago. But Kelly and I still see each other now and then.”

“Huh,” Jake said as he thought. “I didn’t realize you had friends other than Kylie.” Amy smacked him hard on the arm. “I mean outside of work!” Jake clarified loudly. Amy glared at him again.

They sat there silently, drinking their beers and surveying their surroundings.

“It’s kinda weird don’t you think?” Amy asked.

Jake looked back at her. “What is?”

“That of all the people they know, they thought _we_ were the ones who’d be perfect together?” Amy clarified.

Jake stared at her but she wouldn’t meet his gaze. He had so many things on the tip of his tongue that he wanted to say. So many speeches he’d swallowed in the past. But he ignored them. “Eh, it’s probably just because we’re both cops.” Amy finally met his gaze. There was an expression that crossed her face quickly. Was it disappointment? He couldn’t tell before it was gone.

She sighed. “Yeah, probably.”  

They sat there in silence again. There seemed like there was something on Amy’s mind that she wasn’t saying. Jake didn’t blame her. He did too. He didn’t know how to tell her all that he was feeling. For a brief second, he had the crazy idea to snap a picture of them to send to Boyle. But knowing Boyle it would get taken way too far and would just leave Jake wishing for more. That’s how he spent a lot of their time lately. They’d laugh over their morning coffee and he’d wish for more. She’d slap down a solved case file and he’d congratulate her while still wishing for more. They’d get drinks with the squad and he’d look at her and wish for more. He could never say it though. Putting himself out there the last time had been too painful. Amy may have liked him, but it wasn’t enough for her to leave Teddy. That stung.

He didn’t always know how to approach their relationship. They were friends. She was probably one of his best friends. They were partners. There was an unmatched level of trust between them. He knew no matter what that Amy Santiago had his back. He just wish he knew how she felt about him outside of the workplace. 

He looked over at her. She was staring up at the sky. It was pretty night even if you couldn’t see the stars because of the city lights. It was so bizarre to him how one person could bring him so much happiness and so much confusion all at once. She rolled her head back along the chair and looked at him. He quickly smirked before looking away so it didn’t seem like he was staring at her.

“What kind of food do you think they have?” Jake asked.

“I got here early,” Amy explained. “It’s nothing you’d like.”

“How do you know that?” he inquired.

“Because it’s fancy food,” Amy answered. She looked over and noticed he wasn’t satisfied with her answer. “Plus I know you. I think I’ve picked up on what foods you like in the last six years.”

Jake sighed. “Well I guess I’ll have to go get food after this. I’m gonna be starving by then.”

“You could always just leave now,” Amy suggested.

Jake looked at her in mock horror. “Amy Santiago, are you suggesting that I leave a party rudely early?”

Amy chuckled. “I mean it’s not like they’ve come and spent so much time with us. Let’s be real, the only reason we were invited was to set us up. They planned to leave us alone the whole night to let the sparks fly,” she concluded whimsically. “We’ve been here for a while and they haven’t come out here.  We should just go.”

Jake was too focused on Amy’s use of the word “we” to notice her getting up. “What are you doing?” he asked, looking up at her.

“Let’s go get food,” she stated plainly.

Jake stared at her, evaluating everything this could mean. When she held her hand out, he hesitantly took it. “Yeah, okay.”

On their way out the door, they were stopped by Drew. “Where are you guys going? Is the set up going _that_ well?”

Jake stared at him before shaking his head. “Nope. It’s a cop thing. We both got called back in,” Jake lied. He could see Amy nodding out of the corner of his eye. “So we have to go. But thanks for this. It was…really something…”

They walked out the door and onto the street. Jake looked around for Amy’s car but couldn’t see it. “Where did you park?”

“Uh, I didn’t.”

Jake turned to her excitedly. “Do you have one of those robot cars? Is it just circling the block, waiting for you?”

Amy shook her head humoredly. “No. My car wouldn’t start so I took a cab.”

“What? Your car not starting is literally the best reason not to go to a party. Why even come?”

Amy smirked. “Because I was promised I’d meet the perfect man for me. Who would turn that down?”

Jake grinned. “Yeah, well…surprise,” he joked, doing jazz hands at the end.

She laughed. “Yeah, I guess the joke was on me.” Jake could feel his face fall at her comment. He could tell when she realized what she said. “Oh God, Jake that came out wrong,” she insisted, stepping close to him and grabbing his arm. “I just meant because I really didn’t meet anyone tonight. I’ve known you for years.”

Jake nodded before he pointed back to his car. “I’m gonna go get food. Do you want a ride home?”

Amy shook her head. “Maybe I want food too.”

“Amy, you don’t have to go eat with me because you think you offended me,” Jake said.

Amy almost looked hurt. “What? Can we not hang out outside of work?”

Jake shrugged and made a sweeping motion toward his car. “Fine. You decide where we go,” he answered. “But nothing too healthy!” he quickly added. Amy laughed and nodded as she hopped into the passenger seat of his car. He closed the door behind her and wound around to his side of the car. This felt incredibly too date-like. His chest tightened a little bit as he saw Amy watching him as he put the car in drive.

**

Something happened at dinner that Jake never would have predicted. It was easy. It wasn’t like before when they were clearly feeling awkward by being set up. No, this time it was just like they were them. They were Jake and Amy just hanging out and ribbing each other as they always did. Their friendship was still there. Their partnership was still there. Jake couldn’t remember the last time he’d laughed that much over a simple meal with someone. It was comfortable. And way more so than he was expecting when they first left Drew’s. Something just clicked for them.

It wasn’t the first time like this. They were always comfortable around each other. They’d known each other too long not to be. But when feelings got added into it, it made things complicated. And tense. And it left Jake feeling unsure.

But as they talked about work and their friends and their favorite, craziest cases from their careers, it was as easy as could be. These moments made Jake wonder how easy a relationship would be for them. He cared about her more than anyone probably realized. Even her.

He didn’t know what it was that made him get out of the car and walk her up the stairs to her apartment building, but he did. Maybe he just didn’t want his time with her to end. She was laughing at Jake’s story about Scully when she turned around to look at him. He felt his breath shorten at their proximity. She was one step away. He took a few steps back. “Goodnight, Amy,” he said with a wave. He was ignoring what he really wanted to say. He saw that look on her again. The one that seemed disappointed. She bid him goodnight and he turned back toward his car. He hadn’t taken two steps before he froze.

This was a moment. It was a moment he’d probably regret not making more of years from now. It was just him and Amy. They weren’t at the precinct and they’d spent the evening together. This was his moment to finally speak up. He pushed back the fear and turned back around. She was still standing there, staring at him in confusion.

“How many times have we been here?” Jake asked.

“At my apartment building?” Amy asked.

“No. In a situation like this. How many times has this happened?” He continued.

“Umm, we’ve never accidentally been set up by two people who didn’t even know we were partners,” Amy informed him.

Jake rolled his eyes and stepped closer. “I don’t mean that. I mean here, seemingly on the brink of something.” He could see the moment Amy took a deep breath. “It’s happened so many times, Amy. It’s almost stupid.” She looked unsure. Jake stepped even closer. “I told you that I had feelings for you and then I went undercover for six months.”

Amy shrugged. “I wouldn’t call it feelings. You said you wish something could happen between us romantic stylez.”

“Yeah and it’s been well over a year later and you still remember it word for word,” Jake countered. “But then I took it back. But then I said it was real. And you stayed with Teddy. So I started dating someone else. Then you admitted that you liked me too. But I stayed with Sophia. All that has happened since the first time either of us acknowledged that there’s something here. And we’re still standing here waiting for something to happen.”

Amy stayed on the top step. “Jake, who’s to say that there’s actually something here? That it’s real and not just shaped by weird moments between us?”

“Well if it’s not real, then I don’t know what the hell was happening at Charles and Gina’s parents’ wedding. Because that felt real to me,” Jake insisted.

“Look, Amy, two people who barely even know us decided that we would be “perfect” for each other. And they didn’t even know we’ve known each other for years. They didn’t know that we have all this history between us. They knew just by knowing us that we’d be good together. And that’s not even the squad. We probably shouldn’t get Charles started on why he thinks we should be together. It may be stupid, but his almost feels like fate.”

Amy stood there silently so Jake continued. “I’m terrible at expressing my feelings, Amy. You know this about me. And yet here I am, doing just that. For you.” He stepped up to where he’d been earlier, one step from her. “Amy, I have feelings for you. And I have for a damn long time. A stupid long time. And I tried to get rid of them and I couldn’t. They were always there. _You_ were always there. So now I’m here urging you to give us a chance,” Jake pleaded.

Amy smiled painfully. “Jake, how do we even know this would work?”

Jake smirked and stepped up next to her. He slowly reached up and cupped her face in his hands, bringing her closer to him. He gently leaned in and kissed her. Just as he was about to pull away, he felt her hand move up and run through his hair. He deepened the kiss quickly, pulling her even closer to him. After a bit, he pulled away slowly, resting his forehead against hers. “How do we know this _wouldn’t_ work?” He asked softly, grinning from ear to ear. She matched his smile, continuing to run her fingers through his hair. She pulled him back in for another kiss more passionate than the first. She pressed him against the door, getting closer to him. He was overcome with the feeling of her in his arms, with the feeling of finally being able to kiss her. She pulled back quicker than he expected. She kept her eyes closed.

“Me too,” she said simply.

“You what?” Jake asked.

“I have feelings for you too. And I have for a long time, even when I didn’t want to. I did anyway,” she said with a smile as she rubbed her hand against his cheek. “But I’m still worried about how to make this work,” she added after a pause.

“I’m not,” Jake said with a shrug. Amy rolled her eyes. “Besides,” he added, stealing a quick kiss, “I’m sure by tomorrow you’ll have come up with a whole binder full of ways to make it work,” Jake assured her with a grin. She smiled brightly at him.

After a few more kisses (because he could), Jake finally separated himself from Amy, stepped down a stair, and bid her goodnight. She smiled as she watched him slowly walk away. She chuckled to herself as she called to him. “Hey Jake!” He turned around and looked at her. “Pretty good blind date, huh?”

Jake laughed and nodded. “I guess Charles was right.” She looked confused. “He swore it would only be good if I was with you,” he clarified. They shared a knowing smile before he turned back to his car. He saw her waiting until he drove off to go inside. As he drove home that night, he didn’t know if he’d ever felt more whole. He really had been set up with the perfect woman.

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't made up my mind about adding a second chapter or not. So it may happen. 
> 
> I'd love to know what you thought of this! 
> 
> Thanks for reading! 
> 
> I'm on tumblr as three-drink-amy! Come chat with me!


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